Mass. Pike board scraps toll hike

Tuesday

The Massachusetts Turnpike Authority yesterday put the brakes on a toll hike and approved what is likely to be the entity's last annual budget.

The Massachusetts Turnpike Authority yesterday put the brakes on a toll hike and approved what is likely to be the entity's last annual budget.

Thanks to a jump in the state sales tax - from 5 percent to 6.25 percent - the authority will receive $100 million in state funding to help make ends meet.

Gov. Deval Patrick made that official yesterday afternoon, signing the state's fiscal 2010 budget, which includes that sales-tax provision for the Pike.

The board, meeting in the Memorial Building's Blumer Room, voted unanimously in favor of its own budget.

Saddled with debt, the authority will be dissolved Nov. 1 in favor of what state officials hope to be a more comprehensive and streamlined state transportation department.

MetroWest residents and lawmakers have long viewed the tolls as an inequitable tax, with area commuters bearing the brunt of the authority's Big Dig debt, despite the fact that many Pike drivers don't use Big Dig thoroughfares on their way to and from work in Boston.

Some local legislators, like state Rep. Tom Sannicandro, D-Ashland, would like to see the tolls eliminated altogether.

That will likely not happen until at least 2017, according to the state, if it happens at all.

Sannicandro suggested the most recent development - stopping the planned toll increases - was a step in the right direction.

"This means we're on the road to fixing the problem," he said after the meeting.

State Rep. Danielle Gregoire, D-Marlborough, called avoiding the toll hike a "huge victory," for MetroWest.

"We've been able to get to a place where it's unnecessary," she said of the previously looming toll increase.

State Transportation Secretary James Aloisi Jr., said, "hopefully we won't raise tolls for the next couple years."

Not everyone is convinced.

Turnpike board member Mary Z. Connaughton, a Framingham resident, is wary that her board may have simply staved off toll increases for the time being.

Connaughton is frustrated the authority dipped into reserve funds to support its capital budget, which she says is "paving the way," for the tolls to remain.

She says the board agreed in March to take $12 million to stave off toll increases. The board decided yesterday to use $5 million more from the reserve funds for capital expenses.

By drawing from reserves, said Connaughton, the Pike is "basically assuring those toll booths aren't going anywhere."

Dan McDonald can be reached at 508-626-4416 or dmcdonal@cnc.com.

The MetroWest Daily News

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